Deforestation Crisis in Mexico Research Paper
This term refers to the intentional destruction of the forests through the logging process and the burning of the other remains of trees after the logs are gotten (Mraqulis 15). It is related to a wide variety of reasons. Trees may be cut to be used in the preparation of charcoal or they may be intended to be sold for the fuel purposes or at other times cutting down of the trees may be due to create land for plantations and pasture growth as well as to accommodate population. Deforestation does damage largely the wild animals haunt and biodiversity is lost to aridity.
In Mexico deforestation is one of the major challenges that the government struggles with day in day out due to the majority of negative effects that are associated with it. Deforestation in the country is due to the increases in the population of the realm in a rate that is alarming and as they seek regions to settle, they turn into forest reserves (Spilsbury 74). More so, the need to provide a meal for the family does facilitate deforestation as the citizens try to find out the extra piece of the scarce land to farm on. Fuel shortage also does encourage deforestation and coupled by the poverty levels that the citizens of the nation thrive in, the logging is doubled for sale of woods.
Main body
In Mexico, the forestry process has been one of the most destructive ventures simply because the community owns a bigger share of the forestland. It has at least 48.6-million forestland in hectares but all this is lost at an alarming rate of 370,000 hectares annually due to inconsistent policies that are related to developments as well as the and the distribution of the agrarian. On top to this, the country has laws and policies that are encouraging the felling of trees. Such polices include the green insurgency and the programs on woodcutting as well as the law changes for agrarian benefit plus the governmental policies favoring the rising of cattle. The inadequate involvement by the communities affected by this deforestation in the decision making process on how the natural resources are supposed to be utilized and their exploitation do as well promote deforestation.
Knowledge deficiency on the hi-tech and the edifying developments of the indigenous society and lack of employment as well as the ecological culture and responsiveness lack are some of the other reason behind deforestation in Mexico (Royston 98).
Statistics show that 531 hectares of land were lost in 1998 through forest fires. The natural wherewithal damage is more on the Purepecha plateau due to the rampart degradation of the social and political state conditions related to policies, programs, and communal basic requirements. This study is designed to investigate the reminder forest resources, the degradation, their causes, and the effect to the immediate neighbors.
From a historical point of view, the destruction of the innate wealth in Mexico has happened with a unfair distribution of the relative advantages. Ever since 1950 the forest loss in Mexico has been rampart and this was during a period which the country had an experience of the population sudden surge and the increment of the agricultural land tracts as well as their redistribution that resulted to the loss of nearly ten million of the forestland in hectares. During the era of 1970s, the introduction of agrarian laws and emerald faction as well as the alteration of land previously used for agriculture into ranching too did influence deforestation. The rates declined in the 1980s due to the eliminations of land change policies and the summarization of clearance programs. Despite this, it is proven by the reduction of biomass that degradation of the forests still went on.
According to Palmer &Engel (123), deforestation in Mexico has led to the disturbance of about 22.2 million hectares of the forestland with an estimate of three hundred and seventy thousand hectares of forested land being lost every year.82% of this is as a result of forest clearance and the national rates of deforestation are about 3.7 times more than what reforestation effort do. Population pressure too does reduce forestland as they look for the firewood.
The continued and varying rates of the forestland loss are because of relationship degradation between the collective processes and the natural ecosystems. These are made more intense by the production processes and malpractices. Due to deforestation, more so in the Purepecha plateau, many residents have migrated to the United States to look for other alternatives leaving behind women to take care of the family.
The biophysical aspect have been affected to the larger extent and the tropical forests of Purepecha plateau that used to home a great biodiversity of animals that include the wild chicken and coyotes have been left without any animals. This is due to the harshness of the natural aspect that used to sustain life in the forest for these animals. The wide variety of medical plants has too gone down significantly due to the deforestation perspective that had harmed the biophysical combinations of fauna.
Social economically, the deforestation of Mexico has led to the scaring away of the potential investors which has made the economic base to depreciate significantly as well. The citizens are the owners of the vast forestland but that are faced by abject poverty, which is related to the poor economy of the region.
The graphical representation below does depict the statistical rates of deforestation the Mexican and Brazilian areas (Spillsbury 265).
Rates of deforestation the Mexican and Brazilian areas
The human impact on deforestation can be checked through the formulation of strict laws that spell out the borderline between the forest reserves and communal land. Since time immemorial, Mexico has never formulated laws that are prosecuting to the intruders of the forestland. Thus, it has not been able to prevent deforestation and encroachment by the human activity. To mitigate the deforestation effects the Mexican government has to ensure it formulates as a matter of urgency policies that restrict human effort towards deforestation (Williams 153).
The higher population pressure should be avoided through the encouragement of family planning procedures. People should be made to know how to avoid unwanted pregnancies and how to control population growth rate. Even if the government shall be compensating the families that do not give rise to a child anyhow for the longest duration, it is justifiable towards the prevention of deforestation.
Technology such as the electrical fencing of the forested areas as well as the fitting of camera to monitor the borderlines of the forest can also be adopted to prevent illegal logging. Electricity fencing should be the better option towards the mitigation of the problem and if supported by the camera, it is going to ensure the deforestation malpractices are avoided in a greater magnitude.
is effective in a way that its realistic though a long-term step. It is just ensuring that the citizens are aware of their ways that can be used to take care of the pregnancies that are not planned for through conducting seminars and familiarization on how to use the various methods of pregnancy prevention.
The fixing of the electrical fence all around the forested areas would be the most effective approach for the time being. This approach effects are realizable once the installation procedures are done and the on. From then henceforth, anybody who will have to go to the forest reserves shall have to use the recommended entrance hence killing completely the illegal logging malpractices.
A Failure may too be realized if the government just educates people on the ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies without necessarily supplying the prevention measures. To be more effective, this shall need the supply of the tools of prevention as well. The installation of the electrical fence on the other hand would take too long such that by the time it is implemented the forest are already degraded. Both failures may be realized due to the poverty levels that are in Mexico and the poor economy as well.
To be able to fully manage the deforestation menace in Mxico, the government should play its part which neglecting for a long time has resulted to the destruction of the countries tropical heritage, which was a habitat of and plant. Let it create jobs for the unemployed, modify the laws that govern natural resources and make sure that they will uplift the poverty levels in the country to ensure that those who practice logging business have alternatives to turn to rather that it.
Deforestation is a serious problem not only in Mexico alone but also in many places of the globe. It is an excessive kind of cutting down trees that are paramount to the support of both the animals and plant life leading to higher amounts of biogas in the atmosphere as opposed to the as nature dictates. Such a reduction in the right portions of oxygen in the atmosphere makes it breathing hard hence reading to illnesses and poor performance of duties and responsibilities that a employee is obliged to. It does degrade the natural heritage through the depletion of the natural resources that are needed for the sustainability of life and good health. Deforestation lowers the productivity of a place and continued degrading of it results to a desert. In Mexico, the degrading of the northern end had facilitated the fierce nature of Purepecha plateau. This has in turn led to extreme poverty that drives people to United States of America as they seek refuge of what they initiated. Responsiveness towards fighting it is what the governmental factions that are charged with the responsibility of ensuring natural resources are utilized reasonably should adopt. Any more delays towards the preservation of resources would see not only Mexico natural ecosystem go down but hew impact shall be global.
